How do I add a record for my Exchange server in local DNS (mail.domain.cm) to point to my server? (It keeps wanting to append FQDN on the end of the domain).

I’m using Windows DNS service on Server 2003. I’m trying to get internal clients to resolve the mail. The problem I am getting is shown here.

If you are adding an A record to one of your already created Forward Lookup Zones, then it will add the FQDN to the record, since you are adding an A record into that zone.

If you want to use a completely different domain name, add a new Forward Lookup Zone: right click on Forward Lookup Zones and click New Zone. Using the wizard, create a new primary zone called ‘domain.cm’ (without quotes). Once it’s created, open the zone and add a ‘mail’ A record with the server’s IP.